Well who doesn’t like Kerala. After multiple cancelled plans & fights over silly things, my husband was finally able to fly me to the God’s Own Country. We spent 15 days their travelling like snails. And this my version of a great 10 to 15 days Kerala Tour.
Preparations : What To Do Before the Trip
- We were full Jeronimo mode in this one. We had booked a 1 way flight, and just 1 night in advance, and everything was else was left to God. After all, were visiting God’s own country.
- This was my first visit to Kerala, but my Husband has been here multiple times and for long periods as well. So he had some confidence on what he was doing, and I though I just have to play along. Did not happen that way. More on that later.
- My husband spoke to few travel agents for best Kerala Tour Packages [we have never travelled with an agency yet], and we thought it might be new or interesting or better in someway. But none seemed convincing. In fact, it was quite disappointing on what agents and travel websites like Makemytrip, Traveltriangle had to offer.
Delhi to Kerala Flight: Arriving at Trivendrum
- We started our trip from Trivnedrum, unlike the popular choice that starts from Kochi. Reason was my cute husband thought that we would be able to go to Kanykumari as well. Yeah, did not happen.
- Also, we our flight seemed liked the last for the night. We walked from terminal to the campus gate, something that seems impossible coming from Delhi airport, and while my husband was haggling with autos & ubers, a guy closed the gates, locked the gates and went away. There were around 30 people looking for auto, taxi etc like us, and we were the last to leave. A good man from airport security came outside to check if everything was ok with us, and we told him yes, we were just looking for autos, while everyone else had left.
- Never the less, we reached our homestay. Now, this was the creepiest check in that i have done yet. Difficult to go into details, but I would not recommend Nalin Homestay if you are looking a decent accommodation in main Fort / Temple area in Trivendrum.
Things to do Trivendrum
- The breakfast here was home cooked and nice. After breakfast, my husband suggested to go for a walk and explore whats around. We ended up reaching Padma temple, the main attraction of Trivendrum. Since we had reached here, without any prior plans, my husband recommended lets see what inside, and so we went in. We changed clothes to traditional attires, went inside, stayed inside for 2-3 hours becuase it was fascinating. Though we came out happy, this is how he we did what was supposed to be among the main attraction of our Kerala trip.
- In the evening we went to Kovalam. We booked an auto – who charged 400 for to & fro, and waited there patiently for 2-3 hours (basically as long as we wanted to stay). There are multiple beached in Kovalam. And we just kept on walking. Whenever we got tired, we sat on the sand and ate something, and started walking again. The sunset is great from Kovalam (like all other Kerala beaches). We ate food at one of the many eateries lined up on the main beach. This area seemed to be more popular with foreign tourists. We did not like the vibe of any eatery – all seemed like copy paste versions of Goa. Finally we sat at a place – staff was rude, food was bad, overall experience was meh. Our auto driver was a jolly fellow and we came back home happy talking with him.
- We the junction where auto dropped us, there were some milk shake shops with a lot of crowd – my husband wanted to try. This was the first time we had tender coconut milk shake and it was brilliant.
- Eat at Amma’s Kitchen. What a brilliant Sadhya style dining place. My husband ate so much he fell sick for 1 day due to overeating.
- We changed our guest house from old fort area to the Museum area. Nice place. Nice host.
- We hired a scooter on rent from Trievndrum and took it to Munroe Island. Beautiful coastal road. No traffic. Good weather. Could not be happier. It was around 80km. We took our sweet time. Stopped where ever we could find anything to eat.
Trivendrum to Munroe Island (the quiet backwaters)
- Munroe Island is a very small village. Quite opposite to Allepey. Few tourists here. Most of them were local Keralites. Always a good sign.
- Our homestay here was run by a very sweet family. They gave home made food. Very very delicious.
- Did an early morning boat ride through backwaters. Very happy with it.
- Took cycle on rent and took it to another corner of backwaters for sunset. Very nice place. Just 3-4 tourists here in total. Found the famous poisonous mango tree here. Just when I was about to touch the tree, locals objected and politely told me about it. They were very kind in telling the stories & legends about the tree & its fruit.
- Walked a lot here as well. In the village, saw coir making, boat making, oil. grinding in wooden mill. All done by village people for their local consumption only.
- Next day we headed towards Varkala. Beautiful road again.
Varkala
- Varkala is crowded. But it is so long & large spread that it is easy to find quiet accommodations near quiet beaches. Except from the main beach & main market, things are enjoyable.
- The main market & main beach is crowded. Same Goa vibe here again. We ate at multiple places. Some were bad. Some were ok. Nothing was outstanding. At one particular place a birthday party was going on and they were kind enough to share the cake with everyone in the restaurant. Sweet.
- So then we started eating close to our guest house on beach in not so popular restaurants and that worked better for us.
- We took out the scooter to visit nearby beaches as well. Beautiful cost line. Isolated tourists here and there. Some were practicing surfing and some were doing pre marriage photoshoots. Good old laid back times.
- We staed in Varkala for 3 nights, and headed back to Trivendrum to return the scooter. Then we caught a train to Kochi
Kochi
- As we got outside the station, the big city taxi drama started. Multiple cancellations, insane price quoting and following us. Finally after 30 minutes of doing this we got a gentleman who did not cancel the ride. It took 2 hours to reach out hotel in Fort Kochi Area
- Fort Kochi is a beautiful and unique area unlike many in India. It might remind of Puducherry or Vasco (Panaji).
- Once again, we walked and walked. Lots of fancy eateries here. And Foreign tourists as well. Our guest house turned out to be a bit of disappointment but it was not worth lamenting about. So we will not focus there.
- Every place we ate was delicious. Everyone was polite. Nothing seemed very expensive.
- A lot of Kerala local girls boys chill in Fort Kochi and they are a pleasant sight. Unlike what is seen in Delhi or other North Indian metros, their demeanour is calm, attire elegant and overall presence graceful. Loved it.
- We again rented a scooter here. And went wherever we could. Visited the Jew Colony. Nice place to just walk by.
- We stayed 2 nights here. And then we were off to Munnar.
Munnar
- My husband has been to Kerala 3-4 times while this was my first time. And he has a weird sense of what to do and what not to do. Sometimes it works like magic and sometimes its pure WTF! Like his idea of renting scooter and travelling Kerala on 2 wheelers worked for me. I could not be happier. But then he also recommended to skip Munnar as it is overrated. God help me.
- So I put some sense into him and we left Kochi in dawn on our pretty yellow scooter. The route was very nice. Once outside Kochi, the road was dotted with large mansions (spice export money or Gulf Money). Beautiful homes.
- We reached Munnar comfortable in around 4-5 hours. Our room was very nice here. We were not tired, so we freshened up, and kept going on scooter. And boy did we go. We went to almost all the spots the same day. We ended up riding for 14 hours that day.
- Munnar is beautiful. And despite being crowded, it is such a large area, we were able to find peace & solitude where we wanted. Unbelievable views.
- We found the food a bit tricky here in Munnar. All we could find was tourist friendly north Indian food. No good Kerala cuisine restaurants (at least in the area where we were staying).
- We visited chocolate factory. Good experience.
- One thing that is easily missed is Kerala feels very safe. One does not appreciate it enough till you visit to not so nice places. There was no incidence of any one even mildly bothering us except Kochi Railway station. We have had some harrowing experiences on our travels. Kerala had none. The people are really really really nice & sweet. This cant be mentioned enough about Kerala. (this might be the case because we stayed away from House Boats – where my Husband told me chances of not so nice behaviour are higher).
Budget
Flights: 6000 x 2 x 2 = 24,000
Hotels = 14 x 2500 average = 35,000
Food = 300per person x 2 meals x 2 person x 14 days = approx 15,000
Internal Transfers & Scooter Rentals = 15,000
Tickets etc = 2000
Total Expense = Around 95,000